London Slor, 



benefit of his own well-considered and careful views. It will be no- 

 ticed, too. that he gives no reason for his opinion other than that it 

 " stood in the middle of the city as it run out in length ; " and modern 

 investigation drawing the map of Roman London shows him to be 



the first that Antoninus, who wrote his famous " Itinerary " about the 

 end of the third century, gives London as the goal or starting point of 

 seven out of the fifteen great central Roman roads in England ; and 

 the other fact that Watling street, of which Cannon street is a part, 

 is supposed with great probability to have been one of the military 

 roads of Roman London. Now, the old writers mention four roads 

 that passed through the southern portion of the island extending to 

 different parts of Britain, and they were no doubt originally the an- 

 cient British roads by which communication was maintained between 

 one district and another. Tacitus would seem to be speaking of these 

 ante-Roman roads when he tells us that Agricola, in preparing for one 



because it was feared that the roads were infested by the enemy's 

 forces. The roads can still be traced and were known as the Fosse — so 

 called as some think because it was ditched each side — Watling street, 

 Ermine street — now in the parish of Stoke 'Newington, London, 

 and the Ichenild which began in the country of the Iceni. We will 

 understand better the direction of these roads by the description of 

 them given by Robert of Gloucester, who flourished about the year 

 1300. The quotation is taken from his Chronicle of England : 



Xow these old British highways may well be considered Roman 

 roads, for they were widened, drained, paved and kept in order by Ro- 

 man engineering skill ; and Camden says that at the end of every 

 mile along these roads there were erected pillars by the Emperors 

 with figures cut in them to signify the number of miles, so that Cam- 

 den's conjecture assumes the form of a logical syllogism after this 



